§21-1A-1. Public policy and purposes of article; mediation;
investigation and mediation by commissioner of
certain labor disputes; arbitration; construction of
article.
(a) It is hereby declared to be the public policy of this
state and the purposes of this article to encourage the practice
and procedure of collective bargaining by protecting the exercise
by employees of full freedom of association, self-organization
and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the
purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their
employment or other mutual aid or protection; to prescribe the
legitimate rights of both employees and employers in their
relations; to provide orderly and peaceful procedures for
preventing the interference by either with the legitimate rights
of the other; to protect the rights of individual employees in
their relations with labor organizations; to define and prescribe
practices on the part of labor and management which are inimical
to the welfare, prosperity, health and peace of the people of
this state; and to protect the rights of the public in connection
with labor disputes. This article shall be deemed an exercise of
the police power of the state for the protection of the welfare,
prosperity, health and peace of the people of this state.

(b) The commissioner of labor or his designated
representative may investigate and mediate labor disputes between
an employer and a labor organization, whether or not a collective
bargaining agreement exists between such parties providing both
parties to such dispute request in writing such intervention or provided the commissioner offers such service to both parties and
both parties to the dispute agree in writing to the investigation
or mediation. The commissioner may arbitrate such disputes or
arrange for the selection of boards of arbitration on such terms
as all of the parties to such disputes may agree upon. Records
of the department relating to labor disputes shall be
confidential.

(c) This article is patterned after the provisions of the
"National Labor Relations Act," as amended, and except insofar as
the provisions of this article differ from the provisions of said
act, as amended, the decisions of the national labor relations
board and of the courts with respect to said act, as amended,
shall be authoritative in the interpretation, administration and
application of the provisions of this article.